Citizenvoice

From Lakeinnovation.org

1. Problem:

Lack of channels for citizens to express their voice to improve the quality of their schools.

2. Measurable goal:

In three municipalities, at least, 10% of their citizens send SMS identifying problems at their schools, and 50% of these problems are fixed.

3. Audiences:

a) Citizens; b) Public officials (Municipal government and Ministry of Education); c) Watchdog organizations; and, d) Schools.

4. Value:

- Enable citizens to express their voice when they see a problem at their schools.

- Public officials receive feeback from citizens and watchdog organizations that help them to improve the schools management and their results.

- Watchdog organizations have the possibility to improve quality of schools and the education system as a whole.

5. Motivations:

- Public officials at the local government, ministry of education and/or schools receive public recognition when they fix the problem identified by citizens.

- Watchdogs organizations become part of a community that exchange experiences and develop capacities to promote social change.

6. Information flow:

a) Citizens identify a problem at their school. b) Citizens send a SMS to the Municipality with the problem they identified. c) Watchdog organizations also receive the SMS and follow it up. d) Municipality asks the Ministry of Education and/or the school to fix the problem. e) Watchdog organization follows municipality request to fix the problem at school. f) The quality of school improves.

7. Concrete things I need to work on:

a) How to set up a system to receive/send SMS; b) How to create a blog for the project;and, c) How to combine the SMS system with other social media tools (twitter, facebook).